In North American sports, July 1 means two things. One is Canada Day, the anniversary of Canadian independence, which means that Canada's one remaining team in Major League Baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays, not only plays an afternoon game at home, but, despite actually having "Blue" in their name, will wear red jerseys.
The other is Bobby Bonilla Day, a day when we mock the Mets for making a stupid deal with a stupid player with a smart agent. Happy such to all who celebrate.
Anyway... Both the Mets and the Blue Jays were a problem for the Yankees this week. The Yankees went out to Citi Field last Tuesday night, and their injury-induced slump continued. In his 2nd start after coming off the Injured List, Gerrit Cole allowed 6 runs in 4 innings. In other words, if 4 innings hadn't been his limit, he should have been taken out at that point, anyway. After 6 innings, they were behind 9-1, the run coming on a home run by Juan Soto. It was ugly.
They scored a run in the 7th, and then 5 in the 8th, 3 on a home run by Aaron Judge. But they couldn't get anything in the 9th inning, and lost, 9-7.
The Wednesday night game was much the same, without the comeback attempt. Luis Gil, so good for most of the season, got rocked again. Judge hit his 30th homer of the season, but the Mets won, 12-2. Take out the top of the 8th, and the Mets won on aggregate, 21-4.
So the fans of the Small Club in Flushing had their cup final, as would be said in England.
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Maybe getting out of the City would do the Yankees some good. Or even out of the country. At first, no: They lost 9-2 to the Jays at the Rogers Centre on Thursday night. Carlos Rodón allowed 5 runs in the 1st inning, and 3 in the 2nd, including 2 home runs by George Springer, a former cheating Houston Astro nemesis.
Between them, over the last 7 1/3rd innings, Rodón and relievers Phil Bickford and Jake Cousins allowed just 1 run on 4 hits and no walks, but the damage was done. Trent Grisham hit a home run for the Yankees.
On Friday night, the Yankees turned the tables. Former Blue Jay (and former Met) Marcus Stroman allowed a run in the 1st inning, and didn't get out of the 5th. At one point, he could be seen yelling at Gleyber Torres in the dugout. Torres had come under fire, from fans and media alike, for being lazy, for not running out ground balls, and for sloppy fielding.
It must have woken him up: In the top of the 6th, he homered, and so did Soto, part of a 6-run inning. The Yankees scored 2 in the 8th, and 7 in the 9th. Their linescore over the last 5 innings was 06027. That is the ZIP Code for East Hartland, Connecticut, near Hartford. Michael Tonkin was the pitcher when the Yankees took the lead, and so he was the winning pitcher, as the Yankees won, 16-5.
Did that snap the Yankees out of their slump? Hardly: They lost the Saturday afternoon game, 9-3. Nestor Cortés didn't pitch badly, but Bickford allowed 5 runs in the 6th to throw the game away. Torres went 2-for-4, and Austin Wells hit a home run.
Over the last 10 games, the Yankees had allowed an average of 8.2 runs per game, scoring 5.1, and going 2-8. But, yesterday afternoon, they went back to the way they'd been playing most of the year, scoring 2 in the 1st, including another home run by Judge, and 2 in the 2nd. (Judge is having another Hall of Fame season, but it feels like it's being wasted.)
Cole was much better, allowed to pitch 5 full innings. Torres went 2-for-5. The Yankees won, 8-1, and gained a split of the series with the pesky Blue Jays.
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So we begin July, having played more than half the regular season. The Yankees are 54-32, and are officially tied with the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Eastern Division, although we trail them by 1 game in the all-important loss column, and by .003, percentage-wise, which is what really matters. The Boston Red Sox are 8 1/2 back, the Tampa Bay Rays 11, the Toronto Blue Jays 14 1/2.
From March 28 to June 14, the Yankees played at a 112-50 pace. Then, the annual injury crisis kicked in and they've played at a 65-97 pace. That can't go on.
Here's the latest on the significant players out due to injury, in descending order of believed availability:
* Giancarlo Stanton: He resumed activity on a treadmill on Thursday. He could be back right after the All-Star Break.
* Scott Effross: The pitcher is currently in minor-league rehab. It would probably be best to leave him there until returning from the All-Star Break.
* Clarke Schmidt: He has resumed throwing. He probably won't be back before August 1.
* Jasson Domínguez: He was mere days away from returning from his last injury when he was stricken with a new one. He may be available by August 1.
* Cody Poteet: Of course, the pitcher meant to take the place of the injured Schmidt gave us a little taste of talent, and then got hurt himself. He may be available by August 1.
* Ian Hamilton: The relief pitcher has been rehabbing, but not yet officially throwing. It would be a shock to see him back before August 1.
* Anthony Rizzo: He is currently expected to return in mid-August.
* Jonathan Loáisiga: He had Tommy John surgery. Hopefully, see you in 2025.
The Yankees have today off, then start a 3-game home series with the Cincinnati Reds, including a 4th of July matinee. Then the Red Sox come to The Bronx for the 1st time all season. I hope we pound them. Then comes the All-Star Break, a good time to see if they've snapped out of the slump, or not.
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